Daily Deals, Segway Tours, and Birthday Celebrations!

I love deals. In fact, I am somewhat obsessed with trying to never pay full price for anything that we do. It makes whatever I am buying seem so much cooler if I have gotten it for a fraction of the price that it normally sells for. I have been known to become giddy about it. Really. I will admit, however, that I am often tempted to buy something if it's a "really good deal" that I shouldn't be spending money on, just because it is so hard to pass up the opportunity to "save" so much money. Fortunately, I have learned to be very self-controlled.

Sometimes though, this obsession of mine really does pay off - as it did this weekend with my plans for Jay's birthday. Let me back up...I get daily coupons sent to me via e-mail from various sources (if you are not signed up to receive the daily deals from Groupon, Living Social, or Screamin Daily Deals, you should really think about doing so!). Regardless of the fact that I think I have only actually bought two of these deals, I still look forward to seeing what they are each day. There have been several that have taken some serious willpower to resist. Recently though, a deal came up for a segway tour in Huntington Beach. If you don't know what segways are, think Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I didn't even know that these tours existed, and I had been trying to think of something fun and different that I could do for Jay for his birthday. So when I saw this (for a fraction of what it usually costs, of course!), I decided that it might be fun to try...and it was! Jay had no idea where I was taking him, and if he thought that it was totally lame, he didn't let on. He's good to me that way. If you can get past the fact that you look like a bit of an idiot riding around on the thing, which I have no problem getting past, it's great! We were the only two people on our tour, which made it even better. I was a bit nervous on it at first, but the way those things work is really amazing and it didn't take long to get the hang of it. Jay, of course, knew what he was doing the second he stepped on it because that's the way he is with everything...good at it. It turned out to be a really fun afternoon.

Later that night, we went out to dinner...which brings me to my next deal - http://www.restaurant.com/. You can go to that website and enter a zip code and it will list various restaurants in the area that you can purchase gift certificates for at discounted prices. The prices listed are only okay. DON'T BUY THEM FOR THE LISTED PRICES. The amazing deal comes when you enter a promo code...and there is ALWAYS a promo code available. You can find one if you just google it. So, for $4, I bought a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant I wanted to take Jay to! There are some requirements depending on the certificate you buy, so you have to be sure to read the fine print. Some are only good Monday-Friday, there are minimum purchase requirements, etc. Make sure you know what you are buying. This was the second time we have bought a gift certificate through them (the first time we bought a $100 gift certificate for $8).

In between our segway tour and dinner, we stopped at my parents to get ready. Their house is sort of two-in-one, and the front part of the house was our "hotel" for the night. The kids were staying with my parents in the back and never even knew we were there. My mom had set out a bottle of wine and a fancy cheese platter for us, and made everything perfect...because that's what she does. She's always thinking of the details.

So, all in all, we had a great day, as well as a great night out, the kids LOVED getting a sleepover with my parents, and we spent only a fraction of what it should have cost us. In my mind, that equals perfection! Hopefully, Jay thought so as well...since, afterall, it was supposed to be for him!



Isn't he cute??



The Big 4-0

It's hard to believe, but today is Jay's 40th birthday. If you know him, you know that nobody would ever guess that he's 40. He doesn't look it or act it, although if you ask him, he'll say that he is starting to feel it. His birthday actually marks a sort of 10 year anniversary for us as well because we started dating right before his 30th birthday. In fact, one of our first dates was on his birthday when he took me out to dinner. That does seem a little backwards, I know. But, I certainly wasn't going to pay for the date! :) I was just a wee lass of 22 at the time and had no idea what I was getting myself into! Just kidding. I can honestly say that we have had such an amazing 10 years together and I feel so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He is truly one of the smartest, most talented people that I have ever known, and he makes me so proud to be his wife. More than that though, he loves me and takes care of me, and is always striving to be better, and I am still so in love with him.

He never likes to make a big deal about himself for birthdays or anything else, and is uncomfortable when anybody does anything for him. But, some of our wonderful friends planned a night out to celebrate him anyway, and it was wonderful! I didn't tell Jay what they were planning until the last minute, because I knew that he would object. But, they took us out and we had a great time. They refused to let his 40th birthday pass by unnoticed, and it really meant a lot to him. And, our neighbors insisted on babysitting for us, so we didn't even have to pay for a babysitter. We just got spoiled with a night out, which is a very rare thing for us. (So rare that I felt like I needed to make a Target run to find a cheap top that would update my outfit a little bit for a night out!)

I, unfortunately, have not done anything to make him feel special today. He even got stuck making breakfast this morning! I know, horrible wife. But, I do actually have plans for him on Saturday (more on that later because he doesn't yet know what they are), so I will try to make up for it then. (If I post any pictures of that, I'm quite certain I will be wearing the same top. Afterall, I didn't buy two tops from Target to try to update my wardrobe!) Here are a couple of pictures of our night out.

Happy birthday, Babydoll!

Bigger Is Not Always Better

I recently found out that a friend of mine is pregnant with her third child. She and her husband had always just planned on having two, and thought that they were done. Recently, however, they began discussing it more and decided that they wanted to have another.  And so, shortly after that decision, she got pregnant. She is now in her second trimester and things seem to be progressing as they should...which is wonderful!! I have to say though, that world is a little bit foreign to me. Oh, if only it were so easy! It's as though they live in a world where they actually have control over what happens in their lives. That's not the world I live in.  I try to be in control of it, but continue to learn more and more that I most certainly am not, nor should I be!

As I'm sure anybody who reads this blog already knows, I have always wanted a big family. I married someone who also wanted a big family, and so I never imagined that we would have any fewer than 4 kids...that was the minimum! Growing up, I always loved coming from a large family and having built-in best friends and constant playmates. I wanted the same for our children. I wanted Jake to have brothers to do boy things with and Addi to have sisters to do girl things with. I wanted them to develop certain character traits that I think are more easily learned when you are part of a large family and not constantly the center of the universe. I had very specific dreams of what I wanted our family to look like and what I thought it should look like. It has been painful for me to not see those dreams realized and extremely difficult to let go of those plans that I had for our lives. I am surrounded by friends and family whose families I have watched continue to grow, and sometimes, that has been difficult too. There has been a part of me that has wondered why they continue to be blessed with children, while we do not.

I have continued to learn the hard way, however, that I have very little say in the matter. But still, I have remained hopeful that more children are coming and have adamantly resisted allowing us to exit the "baby stage." I held onto our stroller and highchair and baby clothes for dear life, and have remained mentally and emotionally ready for more babies. So although I have learned very well that I am not in control of when the Lord would bless us with more children, I have really continued to believe that, at some point, He would give us more, whether they be biological or adopted. I have spent much time worrying about the gap between kids getting bigger and bigger and have continued to try to relinquish control and trust that God's timing would be perfect. I have continued to hope that eventually our family would start to look a little more like the family I had always envisioned. And, each month, I am hit with the reality that we are another month farther away from a "better" family.

But suddenly, for the first time, I am beginning to realize that a bigger family does not necessarily mean a better family. God really does know what is best for our family and, for us, that is obviously not having our own built-in baseball team...and that's okay. After almost four years of trying to to add to our family; almost four years of ovulation kits and pregnancy tests; almost four years of surgeries and miscarriages; almost four years of hopefulness and disappointments; I am suddenly and inexplicably at peace with, and actually ready to embrace the fact that our family is probably complete. I am realizing that I have wasted time being dissatisfied with our family because it is not what I envisioned it was going to be, rather than being so incredibly grateful for the amazing family that we have. For so long, I have struggled to try to release my grip on what I wanted for our family and what I thought it should be and would be, and had even felt at times that I had let it go. But this time, the difference is that I actually feel joyful that God has chosen to make our family what it is, and that is a huge difference. I feel like I am ready now to instead embrace the freedom that comes with not being tied to nap schedules, feedings, and diaper bags. Instead of continually wishing that I also had babes in strollers and carriers when I am with those that do, I am suddenly feeling grateful that my kids are now more independent and that we have the ability to do things that would be difficult to do with little ones in tow. That gratitude has not come easily or quickly, but, nevertheless, I am starting to feel it.

I won't be ignorant enough to say that our family is definitely complete because I never seem to be right about what the future holds, but I am finally content and at peace and happy with the fact that I believe that it probably is. I believe that our family is just as God intended it to be while we are here on earth, and I look forward to heaven where we will have that large family that I envisioned because there are 4 more babies waiting there for us -  babies who have never had to experience the pain and suffering of this world and who will only know me as a perfect mother, rather than the very flawed one that I am here on earth. Until then though, I am ready to simply enjoy the two amazing children that we have here, and try to take advantage of the time that I have with them - training them, enjoying them, and pouring as much love into them as I can, and simply being grateful for them.  And, finally being able to replace desire and longing with contentment and gratitude is a really wonderful feeling.

California Kids

Because it rains so infrequently where we live in California, we have never bought our kids (or ourselves) any rain gear. Truthfully, I would say that our entire family is in flip flops close to 100% of the time (no, that is not an exaggeration - flip flops are our normal attire for church, nights out, and everyday wear - and yes, that includes the rainy days). We figure, why spend the money on something that will only get used a few times and then outgrown? That philosophy works pretty well - that is, until we do get those few days of pouring down rain...like now. I saw pictures of my friend with her kids outside enjoying the rain puddles in all their rain gear and they looked like they were having so much fun. My poor children have no rain boots to splash in the puddles and no rain coats to keep them warm in the rain.

The great thing about being a kid though, is that they really don't care. They choose to take full advantage of the rain puddles by going out in their swimsuits, nevermind the fact that it is freezing outside (not literally...but it is by MY definition of freezing!). Unfortunately for them, I will not join them in my swimsuit in the pouring rain, nor does the fun last nearly as long as if they had the proper attire, I'm sure. It also doesn't help us when we actually have to go somewhere. But, it works in a pinch!

I'm afraid that these pictures might suggest that I am an irresponsible mother, but I figure it won't be long before they are like me and won't step foot outside on a cold, rainy day. So, I guess for now, it won't kill them if I let them enjoy the rain in their swimsuits. Bring on the pneumonia!! (Not really...I promise, I don't really want to bring on the pneumonia!)

It's Coming From the Bathroom

As parents, there is no way to think of all the many instructions about what not to do that we should maybe be giving to our children...just in case. There is just no way to anticipate the crazy things that they will come up with.

Last night, while I was cooking dinner, the kids were upstairs playing very nicely...and quietly. (Yes, that should have tipped me off because, that is, of course, usually when the trouble occurs. It's always the calm before the storm.) I began to smell something burning and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I checked the oven and the stove and didn't see anything unusual and just figured that there must be something on the bottom of the oven that was burning. Later, after the oven had been turned off and dinner eaten, I still smelled it. I started looking all over the house and was really talking to myself, but said aloud, "Where is that smell coming from?" To which Jake replied, "Oh, it's coming from the bathroom."

WHAT?!!

Come to find out, Jake and Addi had been playing some game in the bathroom. They wanted it dark, but not too dark. Naturally, the bathroom light was too bright, but with the light off, it was too dark. So, they located some old lamp in their closet that didn't have a lampshade and brought it into the bathroom and plugged it in. This was still too bright for the mood they were trying to create. So, they started taking strips of toilet paper and placing them over the light bulb to create the desired effect. Apparently, the toilet paper started sparking and the light bulb started burning. They turned on the faucet and tossed the burning toilet paper into the water, unplugged the lamp and put it away, and hoped that nobody would notice the burning smell throughout the house. I'm still just so incredibly grateful that they did not hurt themselves or burn the house down!

So, if you have not yet thought to tell your children never to place strips of toilet paper (or anything else for that matter) over a hot light bulb, take my advice and do it now!

Cousins - Part 2

Jake was supposed to attend an event at church on Friday night called "The Late-Nighter" for which he has been anxiously counting down the days. We were not all that keen on him going, seeing as how he's only 6 and we really felt like there was absolutely no need for him to be with a group of 6-10 year olds without us until midnight. I'm not certain who decided that would be a good idea, but I did not think that it was. He talked about it for so long though and was so excited about it that we weren't certain how to break it to him that he would not be attending. We finally told him that he could go for the first few hours and that we would pick him up at 9, which, we assured him, was still a "Late-Nighter!"

We were saved, however, when we discovered that my nieces and nephews would be spending the night with us on Saturday night. My sister and brother-in-law were coming down for an event and so their four kids were going to spend the night with us. As I've mentioned, Jake and Addi love their cousins and were SO excited when they found out about the sleepover. We told Jake though that he could not do both the church event on Friday night and the sleepover with his cousins on Saturday night, and that he would have to choose. It was a huge relief when my plan did not backfire and he chose the sleepover (seeing as how the sleepover would be happening regardless of what he chose!). So, we had 6 kids here for the afternoon and night, and they all had a great time. Jake got to miss out on the sleep that he so desperately wanted to miss out on with the late-nighter, and a fun time was had by all. No, he did not get the pizza and bouncehouse that he was looking forward to, but they rode bikes and scooters and skateboards, and played guns and cops and robbers and dress-up, and had a blast. Have I mentioned that we miss having our cousins near???

Homeschool Nature Day - The San Diego Zoo

Every Friday we get together with our homeschool group (a very small group of just a few families) for our Nature Day. Typically, we visit a spot in Orange County each week where the kids can explore, observe, and learn about nature...as well as spend time with their friends. That is the goal, anyway. For the kids, it is not at all about observing and learning, but all about running around and being with friends, which is great too. They are getting to run around and be with friends in some beautiful places! We often visit different beaches, nature centers, parks, etc. It's a good thing for me too because I would never venture out to these places on my own. I prefer to remain within about a 5 mile radius of our home (where, in my defense, we also have some beautiful places that we frequent!). I never know where anything is, and I never remember how to get anywhere, and I really don't like to drive very far. So, if not for this group, we probably wouldn't experience many new places. The problem is, I also have such a horrible memory that I don't remember one place from the next. They all run together for me...so I might as well just stay within the 5 mile radius of our house! :) I'm hoping that the kids have a better memory than me though, and that they will remember and appreciate the various locations that we visit!

This week for our Nature Day, we ventured out of Orange County to visit the San Diego Zoo. And, if anybody out there has a group of 15 or more and you're interested in visiting the San Diego Zoo, let me just tell you that it only cost me a total of $4 to pay for myself and my two kids, which is even better than the $8 that I thought it was going to be! I'm not sure how it worked out that way, but we made a reservation for our group ahead of time and when we got there, it was a total of $20 which we split up amongst our group of 5 families. If you can't tell that I'm excited about that, then you don't know me. I LOVE A DEAL!! Plus, there's no way we would have gone if we had had to pay anywhere near full price. (Side note: Full price is now $37 for adults and $27 for children. That seems insane to me!)

The kids had fun running around the zoo and checking out all the animals. I'll have to admit that I am not much of a "zoo person" myself. I really am constantly amazed by God's creativity though, and it's kind of cool to see so much of it all in one place. Much of the time, Addi seemed more interested in trying to locate the animals on the map, rather than seeing the actual animals themselves. I have a feeling that she would not consider herself a "zoo person" either. I tried to explain to her that the real thing is much more interesting, but she continued to seem more interesteed in finding them on the map. Then, when we would get to an animal, instead of spending much time looking at it, she would spend the time figuring out on the map what we would see next. We had to make a couple of detours off of the path because Addi couldn't pass up the eagle or the zebra or whatever it was that was supposed to be along the way.

Overall, it was a great day. Jake remembered last night that we never ended up making it back up a different path to check out the tigers (which we had said that we would do at the end of the day), and he wasn't too happy about it. But, I informed him that I thought I had overheard someone saying that the tigers weren't out today anyway! :)

I know that nobody cares about random pictures of animals behind bars since you can see much better pictures anywhere else that you look. So, I'll only include a couple animal pictures that I have specific reasons for including!

The Car Trip Down to San Diego

If anybody else grew up singing the Kookaburra song without knowing what a Kookaburra was...now you know!

This one is for Luke. I wanted to get a good picture of one of the enormous snakes, but the snake area was too crowded with tons of people in front of the glass. So, I got this little guy instead. I thought that Luke might enjoy a picture of him eating the mouse!

This one is also for Luke. I think it's called a Komoto Dragon, or something like that. It's the largest lizard in the world and will eat anything from bugs to a half ton water buffalo...whatever it can catch. I thought you might like that, Luke.

My personal favorite

Jake thought that all of the zebras were pooping. I didn't correct him.

The Big Save

Jake was pretty proud of himself for this save...

A Night at the Theater

Okay, I really will get to Peter Pan in a second, but first...Do you think it's awful that when I walked outside tonight to leave for the show, one of our neighbors almost didn't recognize me because I had makeup on and my hair was not in a ponytail? But see, that's the reason why I occasionally don't, usually don't, never get dolled up. If I always did, then there would never be any surprise or "wow" factor when I did, right? (I have never actually thought of that excuse before, but it seems like a pretty good one, right?)

But, about the show. We just finished reading Peter Pan to the kids and so I thought that they might really enjoy seeing the play. (There's a new production of it.) It was, of course, a big debate on whether or not to spend the money on the tickets. We decided to buy the cheapest possible seats though and have a special night out. The seats in the very front row were the same price as the cheap seats in the very back, so I thought that it would be better to be up too close than to be back too far. If you're thinking about getting tickets to Peter Pan though, and are debating which tickets to get, I was wrong. I wasn't aware when I bought them that the theater was going to be much smaller than I anticipated and that, really, the seats in the back are still quite good. Unfortunately for the kids, the stage was elevated and we were at about eye level, so the kids had to strain a little to see everything. They didn't seem to mind a bit though.

In fact, they seemed to love absolutely everything about the whole experience, which made it all worthwhile. They were completely mesmerized the whole time. My favorite part about it was watching their faces and their reactions to it all. Because of that, I loved the show. Now, if you had asked me how well I liked it if I had gone to see it without them, I think that I would probably give you a very different answer. To begin with, I hated very strongly disliked the girl who played Tinkerbell. Honestly, I cannot even begin to describe how awful and annoying I found her to be. She was a middle aged woman with a missing tooth who hissed all the time; not exactly the image of Tinkerbell that Disney has burned into our brains. She also used the phrase "silly ass" multiple times throughout the performance, though I suppose I cannot fault her for the lines she was given. Fortunately, that phrase went right over our kids' heads, along with a few other choice phrases.

The second thing that I found quite annoying (though not nearly on the level of Tinkerbell) was the puppeteer. Rather than having the person who played Nana, the dog, dressed up in a dog suit, they had a puppeteer parading her around. I didn't mind him that much though until the children arrived in Neverland (where Nana does not go) and the puppeteer was then parading an ostrich around instead. Now, we just finished reading the book, and I recall no ostrich whatsoever, and cannot begin to imagine who would think it a good idea to add that to the play. I found it incredibly annoying. The play did a pretty good job overall though of sticking to the story in the book. I would imagine that those who showed up expecting the Disney version were probably a little surprised. There was hardly any singing at all and, as I think I may have mentioned, a middle-aged woman (wearing a pink tutu, I might add) was playing Tinkerbell. The acting was a little over-the-top, but kids like that, so it probably added to their enjoyment.

Now for the plus side...Did I mention that the kids loved it? There were no questions like, "When will this be over?" or, "What are we going to do tomorrow?" or "Can we go home now?" throughout the entire two and a half hour show. Pretty much the only question I got was when Jake would ask (with a look of panic), "It's not over is it?" anytime that people would clap. The set was really amazing because the ceiling all around was like a huge movie theater and the scenes would keep moving and changing around you. When the characters were flying over London and the scenery kept changing, Jake said that he felt like he was on a ride at Disneyland. It really was pretty cool...definitely the best part of the whole thing.

Jay was a good sport too even though he was missing seeing the Braves in the second game of the playoffs. I think he wanted to kill me when once we finally got back to the car and he found out the game was in extra innings, I asked him to turn down the radio because I wanted to try to get a video of the kids telling us what they thought of the show. (And, despite the fact that a couple of days ago I uploaded two videos here, I cannot remember how to do that right now, and it's 12:30 so I'm not going to try to figure it out. So, I'll post a few pictures instead.) Then, after we got the kids down, Jay turned on his computer to find that the Braves hit a homerun in the 11th to win the game...WHILE we were putting the kids to bed. So, he missed it all. Even though he missed out on the Braves and Peter Pan was probably not what he would have chosen to miss them for, he really did have fun too, because in case you hadn't heard... the kids loved it! And it's hard not to enjoy something that your kids are lovin'!